Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell talk "Get Hard" movie

Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell's Get Hard Movie Is Really About Godzilla And RoboCop

"Finally!" Kevin Hart yelled when I walked into the room. I shook hands with Will Ferrell, Hart's co-star in the new movie, Get Hard. Then Hart welcomed me into the room at the Four Seasons Hotel during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. "It's about time," he said, that a black man had walked into the room to ask some questions.

Perfect. Hart had opened the door to a discussion about race, which sets the tone in Get Hard, an Etan Cohen-directed film in which Ferrell, Hollywood's biggest and funniest class clown, plays a prison-bound hedge fund manager who asks a black man — who has actually never been to jail — to teach him how to survive in lock-up. I reached into my bag for a notebook.

“He’s got a gun!” Hart belted out, grabbed his chest and ducked into his chair.

Instead, I was only armed with a few questions about what it was like to work together — Hart says he hated every minute of it and in fact was very vocal about how terrible he thought Ferrell’s performance was — and we also delved into the social context of the film, whose premise alone addresses prejudice and preconceived notions about black and white people alike. That, I was sure, would prompt a serious response. Or maybe not.

“This movie is about Godzilla,” Hart said.

“It’s about finding the anecdote to kill Godzilla,” Ferrell followed.

And clearly, killing Godzilla is a difficult task, hence the movie’s name. In fact, spoiler alert: According to the film's stars, the fire-breathing, talking Godzilla in the movie fights RoboCop.

OK, I didn’t see that one coming. I wiped my tears and pled for a serious moment.

“Initially, it was really just supposed to be funny based on the premise of what if this really white-collar individual found out that he was going to be incarcerated, what would he do? What would be his steps?” Ferrell said. “Then, while we were filming the movie, Ferguson happens, all these various events happen. So it’s obviously going to shine the light on some of the race stuff that happens in the movie.

"But it was also an opportunity for us, in a very funny way, to take two characters that think they know everything about each other, and they know nothing and kind of bash those stereotypes but at the same time have my character say everything you know about me is false, except for one thing: White people do do that. And not to say that we all don’t have differences, but a lot of the stuff we’re going through right now as a country, as a society, that we can get there. And through humor, what other way we can satirize that?"

And with that, I was allowed two more questions.

So, what was their favorite part of the movie?

Hart: “The parts with RoboCop.”

Ferrell: “Every Friday when I got that paycheck. Boom.”

Great. And now a shot at getting some advice from two megastars with insane schedules. I asked for one thing they need to do every day to keep them centered.